At least five injured people were taken to hospitals around Abundant Life, Wisconsin.
A shooting at a private Christian school in Wisconsin in the United States, Abundant Life, left three people dead on Monday, December 16, including the alleged shooter, a student at the school, according to local authorities, who specified that five people had were injured and children were among the dead. The two deceased victims are a teacher and a student, while two of the six injured students are between life and death. The perpetrator of the shooting was identified as a student.
“The shooter has been identified” as a 15-year-old girl, said Shon Barnes, the police chief of this town in the state of Wisconsin. “She was a student at the school and evidence suggests she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”he added, during a press conference. The police intervention did not require the use of weapons, since the police found the attacker dead when they arrived at the school. the establishment was evacuated and an investigation was opened. According to the American agency AP, the teenager used a 9mm pistol.
Abundant Life Christian School has about 390 students, from kindergarten through high school, according to its website. During his remarks to the press, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said the shooting took place shortly before 11 a.m. local time (6 p.m. PST).
A handgun found
At 10:57 a.m. Monday, Madison police were notified by an elementary school student of a shooting at the school. The first officers arrived about three minutes later, Shon Barnes said. Questioned by the local channel WISC, a young student claimed to have heard two gunshots. “We heard them and some people started crying, and then we just waited for the police to arrive”he said, in an extract broadcast by CNN.
When the students understood that the alert was not an exercise, they reacted “brilliantly” greeted Barbara Wiers, a school official, during a press conference. In a previous press briefing, the Madison police chief had specified that a “handgun” had been found. Investigators are still trying to understand the motivations of this young woman suspected of being the shooter, Shon Barnes said Monday evening, adding that members of her family had been questioned.
“Every person in this building is a victim”
“Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country, where another police chief is giving a press conference to talk about the violence in our community,” Shon Barnes told reporters. Every child, every person in this building is a victim and will always be a victim. This type of trauma doesn’t just go away.” The killing occurred in a single area of the establishment: “I don’t know if it was in a classroom or in a hallway”he developed.
“We have secured the school, there are no other threats or dangers to the community”he assured, claiming not to know, at present, the motivations of the suspect.
“Prayers requested! (…) We are monitoring the evolution of the situation. We will share information as soon as we can”wrote the Abundant Life Christian School on its Facebook account. President Joe Biden is being kept informed of the situation, and described the scene as “shocking and unacceptable”and asks Congress “to act now”. Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin, said on his X account “follow closely” the situation, and added “praying for the children, teachers, and entire Abundant Life School community while we wait for more information”.
“I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence”said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. “I hoped this day would never come to Madison”regretted the democratic councilor.
Epidemic of shootings
Gun control and school safety have become major political and social issues in the United States, where the number of school shootings has increased in recent years. According to the K-12 School Shooting Database website, there have been 322 school shootings this year in the United States. According to that database, this is the second highest total for a given year since 1966, surpassed only by last year's total of 349 shootings.
School killings particularly shock public opinion, such as that perpetrated in 2012 by an insane person in a Connecticut elementary school, during which 20 children aged 6 and 7 were killed.
The epidemic of shootings has also affected Christian schools in recent months. In March 2023, a former student at Covenant School, a private school in Nashville, killed three children and three adults before being shot and killed by law enforcement. Last year, two students, ages 5 and 6, were shot and killed at Feather River Adventist School near Oroville, Calif., by a gunman who later died from a gunshot wound he suffered. was itself inflicted.
